


Somewhere Out There

by the_ren_lover



Series: Truth Be Told [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24695719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ren_lover/pseuds/the_ren_lover
Summary: Kathy returns to Sanctuary in high spirits, only to realize that Hancock never arrived. Nick is forced to deal with the aftermath as Kathy processes her loss and a storm rages outside the door.Can be read as a stand-alone
Relationships: John Hancock (Fallout)/Original Female Character(s), John Hancock (Fallout)/Reader, John Hancock/Female Sole Survivor
Series: Truth Be Told [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1780213
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	Somewhere Out There

“What do you mean Hancock isn’t here?” Kathy snapped, glaring daggers at Deacon. He shrugged, continuing to lean lazily against one of the rehabbed homes in Sanctuary.

”I’m telling you Kathy, he never showed up. It’s a damn shame too, I could’ve used his help rewiring a few of the turrets.”

Few things surprised Kathy anymore. From the moment she had come out of the ice she had been on a single minded journey to find her son. Every single step she took through the wasteland was part of a grand plan to save Shaun from the clutches of an invisible bogeyman, no matter the cost. She had killed, maimed, begged, and bargained, done things she never would’ve dreamed about during her old life, while never batting an eye. Surprisingly, the thing that she could’ve seen from a mile away was what blindsided her the most. Hancock had abandoned her.

“That can’t be possible, he said he was coming straight here. Nick, didn’t he say he was coming straight here?” The denial in her voice was evident. Nick gave a noncommittal shrug but that didn’t change the reality that Hancock wasn’t around. Deacon just looked bored.

“If he had been here, which he wasn’t, he just passed through. Sorry to disappoint you.” He patted Kathy on the shoulder and went back to work on his latest problem, entirely unphased. She, on the other hand, was somewhere between depressed and enraged. 

As if on cue the wind picked up, clouds rolling in from the distance and sending the smattering of working settlers into the shelters lining the main road. Nick stepped cautiously to Kathy’s side but it was entirely clear from the look in her eyes that she wasn’t present. He heaved a sigh, wrapping an arm around her shoulder before leading her to her pre-war house in hopes to wait out the rain.

Despite extensive repairs and new furniture, Kathy’s house was always a painful reminder of loss. Sometimes while sitting at her kitchen table she could see Nate bustling around and making coffee. Phantoms waited around every corner, enveloping her, dragging her out of her reality into the world of memories she left behind. Shaun’s crib sat empty with a pile of salvaged toys where it had collected dust for the past 200 years. It was a den filled with pain and reminders of a time long past. Well, it had been until Hancock came along.

When he had come with her to Sanctuary for the first time, he filled the house with laughter and light. Instead of ghosts in the corners, he was waiting with a pocket full of chems and enough funny stories to last the night. If Kathy was overwhelmed by the memories, he used every weapon in his arsenal to make sure she forgot. He brought new memories. Now, Hancock was just another wound, a new monster in her closet. 

Kathy wondered, deep down, if it was her fault. Nightmares flooded back to her from her week on the road. She saw Hancock dead, laying on the side of the road gushing blood and wondered if he ever had any chance at all. It was easier to stomach the idea of his death being her fault than to think he could’ve abandoned her. Thunder roared in the distance, reverberating off the thin aluminum walls. All Kathy wanted to do was curl in on herself and vomit. From her mental vantage point she was entirely alone and would remain that way for a long, long time.

The illusion was shattered, though, when she was roused from her daze by the feeling of a can in her hand. Coming through the fog, she noticed she’d been placed on the couch. Nick was gazing at her with his synthetic forehead slightly crinkled. He sat across from her, the picture of control, and waited. Kathy looked down and noticed he had handed her a can of purified water, so she drank, took a deep breath, and tried to navigate the choppy waters of her first break up, if it could even be called that.

“Thank you,” she said, watching the synth carefully, “for the water and for getting me out of the rain.”

“You don’t need to thank me Kath, I’m just trying to help out where I can.”

“No seriously Nick, what can I do to repay you.”

He seemed to ponder for a moment, taking time to study the details of Kathy’s expression before speaking as plainly as he could.

“Tell me what was going on between you and Hancock before I stepped in.”

Kathy stammered, trying to gather up words that refused to settle on her tongue. Nick was as patient as ever, but his steady eye contact made it clear that there was no way for Kathy to wease herself out of answering. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, like a gift from heaven. 

Kathy tried to stand, turning quickly to face the door, but her knees collapsed under her, nearly sending her sprawling onto the floor. Nick was there to catch her though, as always. After guiding her gently back to her seat on the couch, he walked to the door. For a split second Kathy was entirely sure Hancock was waiting on the other side, having trudged through the Commonwealth to make his way to her, but the door opened and Preston Garvey waited on the other side. Kathy was acutely aware in that moment that the knock on the door was more of a gift from hell than anything else.

“Garvey,” Nick drawled.

“Nick! It’s great to see you back in one piece. Is the general available?” Preston asked, as cheerful as always.

Kathy internally winced, letting herself sink deeper into overstuffed cushions. She was in no way prepared to help a settlement less than a day after she returned from her last errand, but it wasn’t as if she could simply ask whatever threat loomed on the horizon to take the day off. 

“Actually, she’s a bit busy at the moment. Do you think you could come back in the morning?” Nick responded, as pleasant as ever.

“Of course, tell the general to get her rest.”

With that, Preston turned on his heel and trudged back through the storm to whence he came. Nick returned, as measured as ever, and took his place across from Kathy as if the interaction with Preston had never happened. Kathy floundered a bit, attempting to find a conversation starter that would lead away from the topic that had previously made its way between them, but all she could come up with was _so how’s the weather?_ The second it left her lips she cringed. God, nothing could go her way today, could it? Nick just chuckled at her in response.

“It’s rainy, as I’m sure you’re aware,” Nick smirked. As if on cue, thunder rattled the little house and made Kathy jump a little. “Now, I believe I had asked you a question before we were interrupted.” Knowing there was no way out, Kathy sighed and started to try to explain what had occurred between her and Hancock less than a month before.

“Nick, I honestly don’t know where to start. From the moment I first met Hancock he was a terrible flirt, but he was like that to everyone so I just assumed he was being friendly the only way he knew how.” Kathy laughed a bit, lost in memories already. “After a job gone wrong where I ended up breaking into his storehouse, he decided to travel with me.”

“Wait, wait, wait! You broke into Hancock’s storehouse and made it out alive?” Nick asked, eyes aglow with secret laughter.

“Yes! Now don’t interrupt me or you’ll never hear the whole story!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Now where was I?” Kathy’s eyebrows furrowed a bit before springing up. “Oh! I remember! We started travelling together.”

Nick nodded, absorbing each and every word genuinely.

“He and I travelled everywhere together for months. We would stop at bars everywhere we went, taking chems and drinking, getting so close to each other but never close enough. I fell in love with him Nick,” She breathed the end of her sentence. “I fell in love with every stupid part of him and decided I wouldn’t stop pursuing him until he fell in love with me too.”

Her eyes were squeezed shut as she relieved each and every painfully beautiful moment she shared with Hancock. If Nick had had a heart, it would’ve broken for her at that moment. It would do no good for him to point out that Hancock was a cad, prone to taking lovers for the night and turning them out at the crack of dawn, because Kathy already knew that. She intimately knew, just as Nick did, that Hancock never loved anybody, not even himself. He drifted through life absolutely unaware of the pain he inflicted on others. Nick only hoped that he hadn’t left too bad of a scar this time.

“That night we were in Goodneighbor after clearing a whole bunch of raiders out of a building nearby. We were celebrating like we usually did, drinking and making a mess of the VIP room. God Nick, I was so drunk but I remember every last minute of that night.” She ran a hand down her face, eyes blurry with tears, but pushed forward through the fog. “I asked him to dance and he looked so shocked. He kicked everybody out, even Macready, and I swear he looked at me like I was the entire world. We danced and I kissed him, really kissed him. He took me up to his office and the rest is history. So Nick, I don’t quite know what was going on between me and Hancock because I left with you before I could figure out if I was more than a one night stand to him.”

She sat there with terribly bloodshot eyes and trembling plush lips, her mind lost in the ideas of what might have been while the real world chugged along without her. Something about the fragile way she gazed at him reminded Nick of the women in pre-war pictures. The original Nick had been a fan of dramas, often driving up to the Starlight Drive-In to watch the debutante of the month cry delicate little tears up on the silver screen, and Kathy’s emotional state brought a tightness to Nick’s chest that he couldn’t quite place. He found himself moving to her side and wrapping his arms around her, caught in some strange act of muscle memory that didn’t truly belong to him. She seemed grateful for it, though, as little sobs wracked her body.

They stayed that way for a long while, just a woman and her synthetic detective wrapped in an embrace while rain poured outside the walls of their little house. By the time Nick attempted to pull away, Kathy was asleep on his shoulder, having cried herself into exhaustion. Nick didn’t judge, simply carrying her to her bed and tucking her in tightly to keep the chill away. Even as she slept, he strived to protect her from every threat.

Nick sat at her sight for the entire night, even long after the rain stopped pouring and revealed the star-speckled sky, and once Kathy woke, he promised her he would help her track Hancock to the ends of the earth. That very morning they departed Sanctuary with nothing more than a bag of caps, a couple chems, and a fool’s dream, headed southeast towards Goodneighbor. Somewhere out there, Hancock was waiting to be found, and Kathy decided she wouldn’t rest until she could find out the truth. So, past goals momentarily forgotten, she trekked into the unknown yet again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I’m sorry this is so angsty, but it’s just going to make the rest of the story so much sweeter. As always, constructive criticism and comments are welcomed.


End file.
